


Punishment

by roseapprentice



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: All At The Same Time Even, And I’ve Written Some Hella Angsty Ones, Angst, Angst and Fluff and Smut, BDSM, Bad Practice, Bondage, Dom Pepper Potts, Dom/sub, F/M, Feels, I Think This Is The Angstiest Sex Scene I Have Ever Written, Loki Does What He Wants, Loki Does What Pepper Wants, M/M, PWP, Poly, Polyamory, Poorly Obtained Consent, Porn With Emotional Plot, Porn Without Plot, Punishment, Sadomasochism, Sex Magic, Smut, Sub Tony Stark, Threesome, Tony Also Does What Pepper Wants, Weirdly Fluffy Considering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-03
Updated: 2015-11-03
Packaged: 2018-04-29 16:27:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5134649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseapprentice/pseuds/roseapprentice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the following prompt: “Dominant Pepper, switch Loki assisting her in reprimanding Tony for the Ultron debacle.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Punishment

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Like_a_Hurricane](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Like_a_Hurricane/gifts).



> Do you even realize the FEELS that had to happen for this prompt to work in my brain?! *stares at some distant point and rocks back and forth as one on the verge of catatonia* There were so many feels…
> 
>  **Activities in this fic that you should NOT try at home** : Propose a hard scene to a tipsy sub without first talking to them about it while they’re sober; Trust a tipsy sub to safeword out of a beating as needed; Start a scene without talking about exactly what it will involve; Hit someone’s tummy without studying relevant safety procedures and anatomy; Or attempt this level of emotional manipulation on anyone ever.
> 
> Long story short? **Do not do the things in this fic.** Okay, good.

 It was really Loki’s idea. These things often were.

Now, there was a world of difference between it being Loki’s _idea_ , and Loki actually having to _suggest_ it.

The god wanted to ensure that Tony be truly, thoroughly, exquisitely punished.

And the best way to do that was to get the inventor _convinced_ \-- at least on the surface -- that he had done absolutely nothing wrong.

So Loki hunted Tony down in his lab that evening and plied him with a few drinks. (A fully sober Tony wasn’t guaranteed to be gullible enough for this.) And Loki talked him through the whole Ultron incident and just how _right Tony’s actions had been_.

After all, the earth needed to be protected, didn’t it? No one could have predicted it would turn out the way it did, could they? Could he have created Vision if he hadn’t dared to create Ultron? And since someone else had clearly been developing that AI technology, who was to say that they would not have gotten there first, and created something that did far more damage? Really, all the dangers and technologies that had spurred Tony into inventing Ultron had already been there. A trap ready to spring, and wasn’t it lucky that _Tony Stark_ \-- Tony Stark, who had the friends and the power and the knowhow to deal with the fallout and make it asset of it -- had been the one to spring that trap? Surely letting someone else get there first would have been far greater folly.

Tony put up a token resistance against Loki’s reasoning, but soon enough he was uttering little renditions of, “Yeah. _Yeah_!” and occasionally, “I mean, that’s what I’ve been saying! Why doesn’t anyone else see it my way? Seriously, yo-you’re the only one who really _gets_ this.”

Once Tony had two feet solidly planted on his soap box, Loki smoothly mentioned that Pepper was home from work for the night, and perhaps they should go up and offer her a proper good night before she turned in?

Dragging Tony from his work to attend to his boyfriendly duties turned out to be easier than usual, with the inventor's mind already drawn away from the machines around him.

Loki ensured that they arrived in the penthouse still in the midst of the discussion. Pepper noticed them and put down her tablet, and there was a pause for the exchange of affectionate kisses and _welcome-home-honey_ s.

Then Pepper turned to Tony and asked, “So what was that you were so fired up about in the elevator?” and Loki had to work hard not to grin in triumph.

His male lover seemed to have no notion whatsoever of the trap that was closing around him. It was a thing of beauty.

“I was just explaining to Loki how everyone just _persistently misunderstands_ why the Ultron thing went down the way it did. I mean, the old team, they all make out like Ultron was my fault! Can you believe that?”

Pepper blinked, tilted her head slightly to one side, and smiled that pained little smile of hers that always said, _your stupidity is almost funny, but it’s just a tiny bit too sad_. “Sometimes the obliviousness of the people we love can be… _unbelievable_ ,” she assured him.

Tony missed the smile, and went on with his tirade. They all settled to lounge together on the same couch as Tony went on at length to the tune of occasional “ _Mm-hm_ ”s and “ _Oh, really?_ ”s. One by one, he brought up each argument Loki had fed to him as if it were his own, insisting on his innocence _so repeatedly_ and _so fervently_ that it was clear his psyche was dripping searing guilt out of every crack and fissure.

Finally, Loki leaned forward around Tony, and tossed Pepper a significant look.

She returned the look in kind, a silent, _Yes I do see the problem_.

Then Pepper knelt up on the cushions and pressed a forefinger to Tony’s lips, stopping him short. He gave her a questioning glance.

Pepper knew the silence wouldn’t last for long, so she made efficient use of it. “I think we’ve heard enough to get the point across. Loki, would you do the honors?”

Tony gave a shout as Loki took hold of him and yanked him from his former position regally sprawled over the center section of sofa.

After a brief struggle and a few confused profanities, Tony found himself on the same seat but in a much more compact position. The back of the couch was now on his right instead of comfortably supporting his spine, and he was kneeling opposite Pepper. Only, he was kneeling lower than her, with his thighs flat to his calves, and Loki’s leg wrapped around his hips from behind so the god’s ankles and bare feet rested perpendicularly atop Tony’s thighs, trapping him. At the same time, the god had hold of his forearms, pressed together into a single horizontal line between Tony’s low back and Loki’s stomach.

It was a hold Tony would have been able to break easily, with a human captor. As it was, his instinctive struggles didn’t accomplish the slightest budge of give. Loki was too strong, and -- when he wished to be -- too heavy, and Tony was as much trapped as he would be by skin-snug iron cuffs.

He forced himself to relax and take a slow breath. “Okay, clearly I got left out of the loop. And now I seem to be very stuck in the _middle_ of the loop.” As if Loki had uttered a series of nonsense words instead of manhandling him into a compromising hold, Tony concluded with an incredulous, “ _What?_ ”

“I’m merely doing as my lady orders. It’s come to her attention that a punishment is in order.”

Tony perked up. “Oh! Wonderful! What did you do?”

Loki chuckled in a distinctly uncomforting way.

Pepper leaned one elbow smoothly over the back of the couch and interlaced her fingers together, tapping one against the back of her hand in a gesture of well-controlled impatience. “Let’s talk about Ultron,” she said too softly.

Tony’s body knew the look and sound of that little finger-tapping motion, and had learned to fear it.

Unfortunately, his mouth had not. “ _Come on_. Didn’t we just really, really thoroughly establish how not-my-fault that was? Didn’t we -- Hey Loki, do me a favor and tell Pepper about the conversation we all _just had_ like two minutes ago?” He refocused on Pepper and added in a stage whisper, “ _You were there_.”

She slapped him across the face.

 _Hard_ , so a ringing started up in his left ear and hot red pain blossomed across his cheek and a little ways down into his neck.

Tony worked his jaw a little to make sure it still worked, then rolled his head forward and straightened it, blinking the grey from his vision. “ _Ah_ - _ow_ …”

Pepper twisted her fingers painfully into his hair until she could hold his head still, and smiled in a way that managed to be warm and sweet and also _completely fucking terrifying_. “You’ll refer to me as ‘ _Miss Potts_.’”

Tony’s breath caught at the smile, and the demand. Lingering pain still buzzed in his face and neck, and a few sparks of it shivered down his spine. His dick was starting to press lightly against Loki’s heel where the god held him trapped in his submissive position.

Wide-eyed and exposed, he looked up at Pepper’s face and felt himself melt, helpless to do anything but relax into the sting of her grip, ceding to her her rightful place at the center of his world. “Yes, Miss Potts,” he breathed.

“Now. Tony. What are you being punished for?”

“Again -- we _just had_ this conversation. It’s pretty well --”

The fingers in his hair twisted tighter, and Tony winced as another sharp spike of pain pulsed through his head and crept hotly down his spine. Loki’s heel was becoming painful pressure against his hardening erection.

An exasperated sigh from the woman in front of him. “ _Tony_. If you’ve been trying this hard to talk me out of punishing you for building Ultron all evening,” Pepper explained, flat voice flat enough to be a touch sardonic, “then you obviously know you’ve done something wrong.”

All the muscles of Tony’s body went very slightly lax as he sagged with the weight of comprehension. Then he stiffened again in a second round of instinctive resistance to Loki’s hold as the human realized _exactly_ how he’d been tricked. “Loki, you --” He struggled to a halt, searching for an insult low enough for this kind of treachery.

“Tony.” The fingers in his hair pulled tighter, bending his head back slightly while Pepper shifted forward on her knees, the better to look down on him. “What are you being punished for?”

Tony opened his mouth.

And hesitated.

It was hard to put aside all the arguments Loki had planted in his head. His mind resisted looking at the thing straight on in about the way his throat would resist swallowing dry cloth.

Funny how hard it was to gather the shame of it together and form it into words.

A deep breath to work up his courage.

Another.

“I... _built_... Ultron.”

Tony had _known_ that. How come it still felt like a painful discovery? He closed his eyes against the words, then saw ugly things behind his eyelids and opened them again, preferring the sharper, cleaner pain of a beautiful face out of reach.

Pepper looked pleased, another small smile gracing those regal, angelic lips. She released his head and sat back on her heels, mollified, if only very temporarily.

Latching quickly onto another topic to ease the tension, Tony twisted his now-unrestrained head a little to the side so he could address both his lovers at the same time. “This isn’t proper BDSM etiquette, you know. It’s discussion, _then_ scene, then--”

“Would you like us to wait and have a discussion first?” Loki inquired. The question was sincere enough, but he nipped teasingly at Tony’s shoulder, a precise little bite prompting a sharp exhale on the human’s part that thrummed through Tony’s chest like a drumbeat.

“ _God_ , no,” Tony scoffed, voice a little too breathy. “I’m just saying. You should be ashamed of yourselves.”

Pepper leaned in again and pressed an affectionate hand to his side, over his lowest ribs. Tony had to work not to flinch back from the warm, intimate touch. It sort of tickled. “Then you understand that you need to be punished?”

Tony met her eyes and swallowed. “I understand.”

-

Ten minutes in, Tony was starting to think he might have apologized more this evening than he had in the whole of any other week of his life. Which was a lot. Contrary to rumor, Tony Stark was no stranger to apologizing for his actions.

Whether this incident broke the record was really a question of how you counted, because he hadn’t made a lot of _complete_ apologies. It was more a stream of broken-off statements along the lines of, “I’m s- I’m _so_ \- ...Pepper, please. Oh god…”

Tony was still in a semi-kneeling position, but now he was naked, shin rested securely on top of his bedspread. His sweat-slick wrists were starting to slip just slightly lower in the bindings holding him to the ceiling, teasing him with the sensation that he might fall. Even though, logically, he knew full well that the cuffs were too tight to escape.

Inflamed red lines ran criss-crossed down his exposed front. He couldn’t really make out a clear view of them, be he could feel his own sweat forming overlapping lines of stinging fire as it seeped into his partway-broken skin.

The next blow came, and Tony heard the sound of leather striking flesh and felt his body curl inward to recoil from the impact before the pain hit. The sound and the hurt seemed to have a lull between them, the same lull between thunder and lightning. Tony was getting well acquainted with the size of that pause, but he still started when pain shot across his gut, blinding and sudden.

It took a few seconds to get his breathing even again, and then he groaned as the burn of the lash blossomed out from the line of impact. He let his head fall forward, doing his best to relax and let the pain disperse.

Loki set the lash down, and the next moment there were long, pale fingers pressing up under Tony’s chin and tugging to the left, and then green eyes were boring into his, checking his condition, or checking for remorse, or both.

“I’m sorry,” Tony whispered, in case it was the second one.

Loki’s answering smile gleamed with satisfaction and hunger. The only thing apologizing to Loki ever accomplished was to feed a kind of madness. The god had been so much wronged and so little acknowledged that he drank in the apologies of damned men like ambrosia. No help there.

Tony turned imploring eyes to Pepper at his right, the one who was obviously the one in control of this situation, regardless of whose hands did the work.

Pepper sat atop a short stack of pillows, legs curled neatly off to one side, copper hair let down and settled against her shoulders. She was now garbed only in delicate pink lace panties, and she made the outfit look nothing less than regal. “Sorry for what, _exactly_ , Tony?”

Tony opened his mouth to speak, but choked on his shame again and fell quiet. How could this still be so hard?

The pale hand under his chin moved away with a light caress, and descended to reach for the lash again.

Tony closed his eyes instinctively against the pain he knew would follow. Of course with his eyes closed he could still hear, and Pepper’s voice said oh-so-reasonably, “We’ve been over this now several times, Tony…”

This was probably one the ten most erotic experiences Tony had had in his life, and he was trying not to think too hard about what that said about him.

The air in his nose was thick with sweat, arousal and leather. And also an odd, familiar sharp note that Tony associated with broken skin, even though it wasn’t blood. Pain and danger always set a fire in his blood, and now was no exception. Flanked on either side by the two most dangerous people he’d ever met, as they burrowed shameful things out of his psyche and he just knelt there, arm tied over his head, the muscles of his shoulders stretched tight and aching. Helpless and hurting and exposed.

He loved it.

And he was almost shaking with apprehension.

The slap of the lash sounded across his skin again. And then that brief, ringing nothing again, followed by lightning-sharp pain and a whimper low in his throat. Other backdrop sounds faded in after that. The elevated breathing of his lovers, the muted, electric hum of the tower, and the faint rustles of skin and cloth close around him.

He only had time to blink away a scattering of pinprick stars from behind his eyes before another strike landed, and soon he was gasping for breath as the blows fell back onto the rhythm they’d halted from before.

His heart pounded and the pulse echoed in his ears and his groin and in the faintly swollen lines marked across his front. Tony only had a little focus to spare for his erection, straining hard against empty air. Except when he winced back enough to jostle it, and felt the pinch of hard metal at its base.

Oh, right. The ring.

That had come into play after Tony was tied up, a little before the lash had come out. Loki had taken a Pepper aside for a moment and whispered something in her ear.

She’d nodded, prompting vicious, mischievous grin on the part of the trickster. Loki had crawled back over to where Tony knelt and slipped something over his cock. Like a thick metal ring, but lighter than metal could be, for its size. Still cool and hard though. And Tony though he’d felt a faint prickle of magic as it settled into place.

He was more than familiar with cock rings, but what the magic might be for… That was another thing he was trying not to think too hard about. Because it scared him, on the one hand. But then also because the mystery and the threat of it were an intoxicating combination, and it made him want soft hands and sharp teeth brushing over his skin. Got him craving touch and sex and tender things. It sent his mind spinning off somewhere foggy and pleasant, which was pretty jarring next to the reality of what was happening to him.

And not what he needed to be focusing on right now.

He was being punished _for something_. He had to think about that.

As little as he wanted to.

It was like Pepper read his mind though, because he caught sight of movement to his right as she descended from her little pillow throne. As he watched, she stood up on the bed and padded over toward him, bare feet extending elegantly with each step in a way that showed off their arches and the shifting muscles of the long legs above them.

She settled right behind him, so there was suddenly a delicious abundance of warm skin pressed against his back. It just happened that another strike landed just as she settled there, and Tony made a noise of bliss that very few people ever make when there’s a whip involved.

Her fingers started carding through his hair, slow and soothing over the same places where she’d tugged and twisted less than a hour before. Tony tilted his head back until he could see her face above him, upside-down but still unmistakably Pepper. Copper-blond bangs fell straight down in his direction from her bent head.

He smiled. “Heh-” The lash fell and Tony winced and then finished breathlessly, “Hey there.”

“Hey there,” Pepper answered just as warmly.

Then she visibly schooled her face into something much cooler. Her fingers, at least, were still gentle in his hair. And Tony, in spite of the lashing and his current position, kept grinning at her like a charming idiot for several seconds until she pushed his head back up between his arms.

She twisted his neck to one side so his eyes were turned toward the beautiful, shirtless god currently taking a little too much satisfaction in inflicting pain on his person. Tony understood the purpose of the position a moment later when Pepper’s mouth settled next to his ear. “What do you need to say, Tony?”

“I...”

Tony inhaled slowly, vividly aware of Peppers hot breath across his earlobe.

“...need to say...”

 _C’mon_ , he urged himself. _C’mon, get it over with_.

“...that I’m sorry.”

“For?” Pepper prompted, just as Tony continued, “For…”

He paused to huff a laugh that was high-pitched with stress, and Loki cut him off with a particularly savage strike.

“ _Ow_. Geez. For building…”

He got stuck again, and screwed his eyes up tight, this time seeking focus. The lash fell again. Forced a huff of air out past the tightness in his throat.

Oddly, it helped.

“...for building an AI. For giving it all that power.” There was a breath-stopping sliminess in knowing what he’d done, and what he’d failed to do. “Without even asking your permission.”

The beating didn’t stop, and Tony was grateful for it. The pain became an anchor for getting one word out after another. It broke an apology too big to give into shards small enough to push out past his teeth. His word came haltingly as he sometimes paused and waited for the next strike to help him forward. “People... died. Because I didn’t stop. To talk to you. About. What I was doing.”

Pepper released Tony’s head, and it fell forward this time, wallowing in the shame of those words now that they were out. Much of the weight of his upper body settled in his aching wrists as he sagged. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered, for his own benefit this time. He wasn’t sure if Pepper heard him, and he didn’t care.

He stayed like that for a long moment.

His senses had dulled during that confession, losing track of arousal and pain because raw, distracting guilt had loomed up so high.

But Tony started to tense again, in good ways and bad, when he realized his beating still wasn’t slowing to a close. The bursts of pain kept coming, even measures of time spaced between, relentless and jarring.

He looked up again, and saw the god working at his task with vicious pleasure in his expression. The muscles of Loki’s shoulder, chest and abdomen twisted elegantly through each motion. And the lash was straying a little low for Tony’s comfort. Well, had been for a while, but it was getting harder and harder to ignore it.

Pepper had chosen his stomach, of all places, as the starting point for this beating. It was smart of her. Too smart, like she could see into his head. Like she knew that a ways lower in the pit of Tony’s gut was the part of his body where every emotion he didn’t want anyone to touch liked to settle in and make a home. The sensitized point where all his regrets were twisted together.

In Loki’s hands, the lash had worked slowly downward throughout the scene, past ribs and diaphragm and all the upper stretches of his abdominals. Closer and closer to where Tony didn’t want it to be.

This most recent blow had fallen even with Tony’s navel. If it went any lower, the lash would find that point where guilt and arousal were pooling in a hot, sickly mess. He’d be cut open and gutted somehow, when the lash fell low enough to strike through the crux of all that wrongness.

 _That_ fear, Tony realized, had been building in the back of his mind. Building since his punishment began. His dread had just solidified as he worked through pain and apologies. Tension in that vulnerable point never eased. Instead, it knotted tighter and tighter.

He tried to just accept it. Breathe. Think it through rationally. _Loki is going to hit my treasure trail with a whip. No biggie._

But then he couldn’t make himself imagine it. His mental grip slipped on the thought, every bit as sweat-soaked and unsteady as his bound hands, and all he could think about was curling inward to protect himself.

And the dread deep in his gut knotted tighter.

And tighter.

It wasn’t fair.

He’d _apologized_ after all. Exactly as Pepper wanted him to, as far as he could tell. They didn’t need to…

Loki didn’t have to keep…

(Except, he did, because Pepper hadn’t told him to stop. Would she ever?)

Fuck it, Tony couldn’t do this.

(Could he?)

The word “yellow” was hovering indecisively on the tip of his tongue by the time Pepper did order Loki to still his hand.

A murmured, “ _Loki_ ,” was all it took, and the room went quiet.

The rhythm of silence and impact went still, replaced by a thicker silence.

Tony felt Pepper’s mouth settle behind his ear again, and he twisted his head to the side to make sure he didn’t miss a word. “Alright, Tony. What are you going to do _next time_ you feel inclined to build a nearly all-powerful artificial intelligence in one night?”

“I’m-I’m gonna talk to you about it first, Pepper.” Tony’s breath hitched as Loki leaned in and a cool finger traced the stinging line of his latest, lowest lash strike. And hitched again as the touch drifted down ever-so-slightly, like Loki could sense the fear crawling under his skin there. “ _Promise_.”

Tony felt Pepper lean back a little, but couldn’t tell how far until her voice came, still close behind his head. “What do you think Loki? Has he learned his lesson?”

Loki cocked his head thoughtfully.

_Please let the answer be yes pleasesayyes pleasesayyes..._

Then a poisonous glint came into Loki’s eyes as they focused on Tony again. “He’s learned... _one_ of them.”

 _Oh_ _ **shit**_ …

Tony didn’t have much time to worry about what was coming, because Loki was leaning in and capturing Tony’s mouth before more than those two words could cross his mind.

The expected horrors didn’t come. At least, not yet. Only soft lips exploring his and long arms twining around the back of his neck to pull him in closer.

Loki’s skin was soothingly cool against his front. Loki’s mouth was heaven. The universe had turned abruptly perfect. Tony couldn’t think. Or breathe, remember too clearly that breathing was a thing. He was drowning in it, dragged underwater by a quick, dark current, and he wouldn’t be surprised to find friendly black fog creeping in at the edges of his vision.

Loki let up before that happened, trailing kisses down Tony’s jaw and throat as the human gasped to recover his breath, head still swimming with unexpected pleasure.

He was confused, and happy to be confused. It all felt so good. How Loki’s lips were tracing tenderly along his clavicle. The way Pepper was pressed behind him, hands running soothing lines up and down his sides and then skimming up along his arms to trace his abused wrists and hands with soothing pressure. The touches were so affectionate, so approving. The endorphins from the earlier pain were settling over Tony like a blanket, delicious and heavy.

He licked his upper lip. It tasted like salt and liquor, and the faint ice-and-apples edge that was distinctly _Loki_.

Loki’s hands slid up Tony’s arms toward where Pepper was still tracing the cuffs around his wrists. Then Tony’s forearms were caught in a hard grip, and Loki used that grip to lift him up a few inches higher.

Tony took an unsteady breath as most of his weight shifted into Loki’s hands, the already painful pull of his elevated shoulders compounded by the motion, wrists newly throbbing with relief from the pressure of his weight.

There where a few quiet moments while he waited, unsure what Loki was doing, and if he was about to find out what the implied _other lesson_ was.

When Loki eased Tony’s weight back down, the cuffs were gone entirely. That had to be Pepper’s work. Tony’s ass settled on his heels, and then when he proved to tired to hold himself up like that, he was guided by two sets of hands to fall slowly to one side, and then roll to lie on his back. Throughout the process, Loki’s mouth worked mostly uninterrupted, teasing at his shoulders and chest.

Tony was exhausted, but still wound up tight. Little whimpers and twitches served as his response Loki’s ministrations. His mind moved sluggishly, but the thoughts were urgent, wondering what was in store for him and whether that narrowly avoided lash strike below his navel had really been avoided or just delayed and _if someone here would please touch his dick already, for fuck’s sake_.

This last thought he voiced. The words came out weak, but comprehensible. He felt a Loki-chuckle shiver through his solar plexus. Then a brush of chin as Loki tilted his face up to inquire, “Shall I, Miss Potts?”

There followed a series of the low, quiet puffs of weight shifting over air-filled bedding, and then Pepper’s face appeared in Tony’s field of vision as she leaned down so her face hovered a few inches above his.

It was like earlier, on the couch, when she’d tapped her finger on her hand and considered his fate. Pepper’s forearms settled on either side of his head, both supporting her weight and allowing her to twist her fingers back into his hair. A painful grip again, holding his head in place to look at her.

As if he would move it now.

“Go ahead, Loki,” Pepper commanded, not taking her eyes off Tony’s.

The damp mouth pressed to Tony’s rib cage stilled instantly and withdrew, leaving the skin there cold in the open air and stinging where saliva had met lash mark.

More shifting, and then --

Ohhh.

Oh wow.

The most sensitive part of Tony’s anatomy was now inches deep in a god’s mouth, and Tony was making noises that sounded half like sobs, half like triumphant, involuntary laughter. Trying to thrust his hips up to feel more of it, being stopped by strong hands. Lost in wet heat. Suction, and the ever-so-faint brush of teeth. The sensation hit all together like a blow to the gut.

Except, no, he’d been struck in that general area a lot tonight, and this was something very, very different.

This was…

“ _So good_ ,” Tony gasped out, voice strained because he was all out of breath from not-sobbing.

Pepper’s eyes lit up in response to his words in a way that was not necessarily kind. Tony would have though long and hard about that observation if Loki weren’t…

...But Loki _was_ , and a lazy heat was flowing up from Tony’s groin and into his brain. Tony was right on the edge. Reeling, even as he lay securely on his back between a warm bed and warmer lovers. Mindless with almost-coming. Loki’s blow jobs impaired mental funtioning as a rule. There were no working components left in Tony’s head. There was just the not-kind light in Pepper’s blue-green eyes and the way it made the skin prickle on Tony’s arms and the back of his neck. Just that and a diabolical mouth working over his cock in a way that turned every other part of him into molasses.

There was just Pepper, really. Staring down into him. Everything Loki did was somehow just part of the look in her face. All her. At least that was what the fragments of thought floating through Tony’s brain insisted was happening.

There was something soothing in the simplicity of that -- that she was in control, and he was not. And Loki was a tool at her command, surrendered and kneeling low. The balance of power, generally so fluid between the three of them, had slowed to a standstill. Turned immovable and lead-heavy.

He couldn’t think. But he could _sense_ and he could _want_. He could want the lock of Pepper’s hair that was falling against his skin to become a more solid pressure.

He could sense the prickle of sweat and goose-bumps along his skin. The burn of his lungs heaving for enough air. The sting of fingers gripping his hair and skin.

He could want to reach up and touch. Brush his hands along the naked lines of Pepper’s clavicle and shoulders.

He could want, but that was all. Of their own will, his hands pulled at the duvet and balled it up in two painfully tight fists that did only a little to anchor him.

Heartbeat after heartbeat echoed through his body in exhilarating, burning pulses, thumping painfully in his groin in response to the slick-slide of Loki’s mouth over his cock. He could sense the electricity that followed, jumping hot through his nerves.

It felt -- he couldn’t even -- it all felt so _necessary_. Like a nail being hammered forcefully into a solid object. Tearing a little bit of his mind apart in order to hold the whole thing together. Or tearing a _lot_ of his mind...

Okay, yeah, now he was definitely coming.

An odd pressure twisted at the base of Tony’s cock, hard and smooth. Not quite Loki’s fingers, but those were there too, playing, gripping and rotating the --

The ring.

That.

Right.

This was the “oh shit” that had gone missing earlier. The one mysterious restriction he’d fumbled and lost track of somewhere in the middle of having his brain melted out. And he was already coming, searing heat rushing though the pit of his stomach, and lower.

But he wouldn’t be _able_ to come, right? Not if that ring did anything like what he imagined it would. Stop him up short. Make him come- _but-not-really_ , possibly over and over again, as many times as his lovers deemed it necessary to make their point.

And the smug anticipation in Pepper’s eyes, as she watched his face, and waited -- that didn’t bode well for him at all.

Tony mentally braced himself for the kickback. The suckerpunch of wretched need that would hit when his body realized it could only have half its orgasm.

But it didn’t exactly… _hit_.

Tony was gearing up for a familiar sensation, an aching flash of lightning and devastating want. Instead, the feeling seeped in slow and distorted, stretching off toward some far off point. It was ache and want, but it wasn’t...

Tony’s jaw clenched tight and his hands gripped the duvet impossibly harder.

His orgasm didn’t stop in its tracks; it had been forcefully slowed to a crawl.

He was still being swept up on the rising tide of _coming_. And he was drowning in the ache of _not coming_.

Doubtless his palms would be bleeding by now from the bite of his fingernails if it weren’t for the cloth and stuffing trapped tight between.

The gut-dropping tilt of _coming_ was no less intense for being slowed. He still felt the always-shocking vulnerability of it. The need to screw his eyes tight closed against it all. Break gazes with Pepper and disappear into his own little world of falling apart.

But he couldn’t.

There was too much command in Pepper’s eyes. An unspoken order of _do not look away_ that he was helpless to defy.

He just stared up at her, wide-eyed, and did his best to breathe through the tremors of pleasure rolling up and down the length of his body. So. Slowly.

Loki’s mouth was still on him, bit-by-bit licking up the ejaculate that was gradually shuddering its way out. The sensation of a hot tongue working over him was like a brand, and he could feel it searing all the way down, past the base of his cock and into that point deep in his gut that he’d been in such a frenzy to keep Loki from touching. He was run through exactly as he’d feared, and he’d never seen it coming.

Hot mouth, dragging him open with intimate licks.

Piercing eyes, seeing whatever was exposed when he was all dragged open.

Overwhelming pleasure that he couldn’t escape by being overwhelmed and ceasing to think.

It all left Tony in an elated kind of horror. This was far from sexual release as he’d ever known it before. If coming was ordinarily like stepping off a landmine, this was more in the order of being vivisected with a coffee stirrer. His lovers were ripping his orgasm from him in excruciating little shreds.

“There’s one thing left for you to learn, Tony,” Pepper informed him softly.

Tony tried to make a questioning noise. But it came out a loud, agonized-sounding groan through clenched teeth, nothing like what he’d intended, and he gave up.

Pepper glanced down to catch Loki’s eye and jerked her head up in a clear summons. Then her eyes fixed on Tony again.

She reached up and pulled a few sweat-damp strands of hair away from her face, as if ensuring that no shadows would fall across her face and somehow make her words less clear. Her tone, when she spoke, was gravely, straightforward. “You need to learn the difference between creation and destruction.”

Loki’s mouth withdrew in answer to Pepper’s summons, and steady slide of wet heat that made a little series of spasms run up Tony’s spine. Then it was gone, replaced by the cold of open air 

It was almost a relief. He certainly didn’t stop coming -- the sluggish avalanche of pleasure went right on rolling over him, but the experience was less acute. Less unnerving.

Loki appeared in Tony’s peripheral vision. A blur of pale skin and ink black hair as the god lay down along his side.

Then it was Loki who was whispering accusations close in his ear. “You made a monster to protect humanity. All well and good. But you made a monster to protect humanity from the likes of _you_.”

One of Loki’s hands reached down and wrapped around Tony’s cock for an abrupt tug. Tony felt a stabbing echo of the touch, pulling again at that vulnerable point below his navel.

 _No please not there_.

His knees drew up defensively toward his belly. Which did nothing whatsoever to protect him.

Time look to Pepper for mercy again. His eyes were still fixed on her, and he shook his head very slightly. Silently begging her to let this one go.

And she spoke, and her words stabbed him even harder. “When you built Ultron, you programmed a person who _hated you_. Hated everything you’ve ever stood for. Hated you for not being perfect. And he tried to destroy us all.”

Pepper shifted her weight to one elbow. Her other hand trailed down over his chest and stomach, and bright flashes of pain laced through every lash mark she touched.

That same pained noise tore its way past Tony’s throat and clenched teeth again.

Maybe that won him some pity, because Pepper let out a long breath and leaned down.

Kissed him on the lips.

Even as the kiss restricted his air flow, it was a burst of softness and comfort, and part of him relaxed into the press of her lips.

Then she moved away, and he could breathe again, gasping.

He looked to her for what to do next --

( -- because breathingcominggrippingstabbingfallingnotfastenough _there must be something he could --_ )

\-- but Pepper’s eyes were on Loki now.

“Suck him again, Loki. But this time… Do it softer this time, and a little deeper.” As Loki moved to follow her orders, Pepper looked at Tony again, contemplative. “Let him drown in it. He’s been through a lot tonight.”

Loki did as he was told, _exactly_ as he was told, and Tony was… ( -- _breathingcominggripping --_ ) ...Tony was… enjoying it.

Pepper still knelt off to one side, and when he looked down between her chest and his own, he could just make out the image of Loki bent over him, dark hair feathering over Tony’s hips. The muscles around the god’s spine pulled and relaxed steadily with every breath, or sometimes in a sharp spasm when Pepper spoke to him _just so_.

After a minute or so of directing Loki’s work, Pepper shifted her hands lightly over Tony’s stomach and scalp, tugging his awareness back to her. “Tony, you’re going to pay close attention to what I tell you next. Understood?”

Everything was haze and wonder, but Tony know his line. He got the words out between breaths. “Yes. Miss. Potts.”

“ _After_ Ultron, you did the opposite thing. You made a person out of a program that loved you. That learned everything -- a program who _grew up_ by becoming everything you needed. You made a person out of all the ways you weren’t perfect. And he saved us.”

She leaned down, and there was her mouth at his ear again, speaking so quietly, and covering his skin in such warm air. “What loves you loves people. What hates you hates people. Because _you’re not a separate category from the rest of the human race_.”

Her fingernails abruptly pressed into the inflamed skin they were skimming over, while at the same Loki sucked and dragged his lips along the length of Tony’s shaft in one smooth motion.

It was a hell of a contrast. Tony wanted to scream, but he bit his tongue instead. Straining to hear. He was damned well going to take in every word Pepper said in this moment, no matter how quiet she spoke them.

“You were never less -- _you were never_ flawed enough that you shouldn’t be alive. And you can’t save everyone by building yourself into something flawless. You can’t do it, Tony. That’s never going to end up as real creation.”

The silence between her words was charged, full of softer noise.

Heaving breaths and heartbeats. The wet sounds of sex and the rustles of skin on skin and sweat-damp legs shifting to keep purchase on smooth fabric.

Pepper’s nails on Tony’s stomach became soothing fingers, tracing undamaged skin where they could find it. “It’s time to become human, Tony.”

The way she said it was so certain, so conclusive. _How did she do that_?

“Time to start seeing that you always were.”

Tony finally closed his eyes. Tried to work out which of the tremors wracking through him were part of the prolonged release of orgasm, and which where more correlated with the way his lower lip was now shaking.

The sum of her words hit hard. The only comparable feeling Tony knew of was having a dislocated rib pushed into place. Not so much the _pain_ \-- well, that too.

But not so much the pain as the relief that came after, when there was pressure inside the right parts of his chest again. The sore, alien quality of newly found comfort and structural function.

It ached in every breath.

Pepper rested her chest against his and kissed him again. And kept kissing him, over and over again, all the way through what remained of his orgasm.

Of course, there was no concrete end to it, no sudden falling off the edge of the world. There was shaking

and ecstasy

and hurting

and touching

and warmth. 

Tony floated in it. Breathed unsteadily. _Felt_.

Slowly, the tide went out again. Drained away and left him damp and warm and shivering. His orgasm subsided. His cock softened. His fingers relaxed their vise grip in the duvet, and a contented, distant ache settled into his knuckles. Into his bones.

Pepper graced him with one final kiss and shifted to sit up straight. Loki’s mouth pulled away from him as well. Tony felt that twisting, metallic pressure again as the ring that had caused him so much trouble shifted and disappeared.

“That… was something,” Tony muttered by way of farewell to the insidious toy. He was surprised the words found their way all the way from his brain to his mouth.

Loki’s face came into view, pleased and challenging. “You liked it then?”

Tony nodded clumsily in approval. “Is definitely… a thing… we should use… again.”

One corner of Pepper’s mouth tugged up minutely. “It would look good on _you_ , Loki.”

Loki’s eyes widened at that. Mostly in surprised interest, but there was the slightest hint of stricken, imploring horror in his expression. An unspoken _please, no_ that the god almost managed to hide.

Tony saw Pepper’s smirk deepen into a full grin, but that was the last thing he saw before his eyelids fell closed, leaden with exhaustion.

He felt the bed tilt under him with more motions, but he was so weary that even the gentle jostling of the mattress felt restful and soothing. Thoughts seeped sluggishly through his head, too formless and warm to really exactly be thoughts.

He was asleep seconds after he closed his eyes.

-

Tony _never_ woke up first, but this morning, he did.

He lay on his side, still weak with fatigue from the previous night. He was awake, but nothing in him wanted to move just yet.

His mind felt oddly clean. In the morning sun, the world looked crisper around him than it had in weeks.

Loki lay behind him, chest about level with the top of Tony’s ass, nose buried in the crook of his spine. One of his arms was wrapped tightly across Tony’s middle, forearm just under his belly button, trapping Tony covetously against him as he slept. The grip was firm, and tugged painfully at the swelling marks along the skin above it.

Pepper was oriented mirror to Loki, asleep behind Tony’s head. When he looked up he could see her toes gripping loosely at the grooves of the headboard.

She, too, had her face buried against Tony’s back and her arms wrapped around him. But unlike Loki, she had taken possession of Tony’s shoulders and chest, her light grip falling across a mess of much older injuries.

Her right hand was pressed, in a proprietary way, just over his human heart.

**Author's Note:**

> Welp, that took me forever to write. My only excuse is that prompt stuck me as both super intriguing and super difficult to pull off in a way that would feel emotionally true to me. I was enslaved by an urge to do the idea justice, no matter how meticulous I had to be to manage that. Hopefully I did, in fact, pull it off.


End file.
